Peter Obi criticizes ₦600 million Adamawa trip for LG Chairmen’s wives

Former Anambra State governor and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has reprimanded the expenditure of ₦600 million in public funds to send the wives of 21 local government chairmen from Adamawa State on a leadership training trip to Turkey. According to Obi, the journey exposes misplaced priorities where key sectors like education are severely neglected.

According to reports, the delegation, which included spouses of the chairmen as well as senior ministry officials, traveled to Istanbul last week on what was presented as a leadership development program. This effort was defended by Suleiman Toungo, chairman of Toungo LGA and state head of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), who said the trip aimed to equip these women with leadership skills to better support their husbands, who have already undergone similar training.

However, Obi condemned this trip as a gross misuse of government resources. He lamented that children at the basic education level, under the responsibility of local governments, are either out of school or learning without proper classrooms and teachers. Meanwhile, local government pensioners face unpaid benefits and educators struggle under harsh economic conditions.

The former governor stressed that the funds lavished on this excursion could have had far more meaningful impacts within the state. He illustrated that about 30 six-classroom blocks could have been constructed for the price of the foreign visit, directly benefiting thousands of pupils and their communities. Alternatively, the money could have been channelled into providing micro-credit to approximately 6,000 women entrepreneurs across the local government areas, effectively empowering grassroots economic growth.

Obi emphasized that Adamawa urgently requires focused investments in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction rather than extravagant trips. He noted that local government finances should primarily serve the needs of ordinary citizens, the market vendors, farmers, teachers, and pensioners, rather than fund frivolous activities involving unelected individuals.